Thursday, September 25, 2014

This is a 36 x 60 commissioned piece based on my Painting 'Serendipity', 24 x 30. I though this was going to be a huge challenge, not just because of the orientation and size difference, but that 'Serendipity' was painted over another painting and had tons of layers, texture and glazes. I didn't remember how I did any of it, as it was a very intuitive painting that went through a lot of changes and had no reference. I thought the best way was to very quickly dive right in, lay down as much texture and paint as I could, cover the canvas and not think of it as a commission. I waited for layers to dry and added more...repeating this process over and over. I added the trees last and then did the negative painting to complete the piece. What the Client was most drawn to were the golds and greys as well as the Group Of Seven 'feel'. I think I accomplished that...hope they like it!
Original painting:

Thursday, September 18, 2014

acrylic 20 x 40 "View From The Rocks"
Yesterdays effort was based on a photo taken from the passenger car window on the way to Canmore ( just like many of my moving photos). I'm doing a demo for Mountain Galleries in Whistler this weekend and thought I'd practice my mountains. I'm still not sure what I'll paint and will probably decide the day of. We leave today. I don't paint until Sunday so I'll have plenty of time to get inspired and take photos in between my gondola/summit hikes and ziplineing.

Tuesday, September 9, 2014

acrylic 24 x 12
In keeping with my 'sky' paintings, here is a study referenced from a photo I took a week or so ago. Love Alberta sky's after a storm. I live close to the foothills near 22 x, and rushed out to grab some shots. I was a little late but did manage to snag a few.

Since Kay was so generous in allowing artists to paint her photo, I thought I'd do the same. I will attach the original enhanced photo and if any artist would like to paint it please feel free. I'm not sure how this will work, but I think you can upload your images to my Facebook page which this post is linked to.

Monday, September 8, 2014

Acrylic 24 x 12 inches
My Facebook friend Kay Schneider, link posted a photo she took of a moonrise and sunset. A lovely photo! She had an idea since so many people/artists were commenting, that it might be fun if we all painted it and shared the results. Would be fun to see the different creative treatments. We've had some wonderful sky's lately, here in Alberta, and I have been seriously thinking about painting some. So this challenge came at a perfect time. I don't do 'sky' paintings so I'm definitely out of my comfort zone.Kay's photo

Wednesday, September 3, 2014

acrylic 36 x 24 inches
I worked hard on this one and I'm quite pleased with it. I deviated quite a bit from the photo but not so much as you can't tell which waterfall this is. There was quite a bit of foliage on top, bottom and sides of the photo but I finally chose not to show too much, as I really liked what was happening with the water, and felt it would be too distracting.

Tuesday, September 2, 2014

Large 36 x 60 acrylic.
While painting the background waterfalls, I debated adding the front foliage as I liked the simplicity of all the water in front, and worried that I would lose the harmony and it would look disjointed. Finally I decided no pain no gain as I could always paint another. And instead of the typical green foliage I decided to add some punch. Totally opposite from the reference photo, I cooled the background and warmed the foreground.
reference photo: